Intrade Shuts Down Betting Operations
Online betting site Intrade announced on Monday it is closing shop.
The Irish company has dealt with controversy since a federal civil lawsuit was filed late last year over the firm’s commodities-focused markets. Intrade, which was known for posting odds on presidential races and other events, subsequently stopped accepting bets from U.S. residents.
Now Intrade is shutting down completely, with no clear indication if betting will return to the site.
“With sincere regret we must inform you that due to circumstances recently discovered we must immediately cease trading activity,” Intrade said on its homepage. “These circumstances require immediate further investigation, and may include financial irregularities which in accordance with Irish law oblige the directors” to cease exchange trading, settle open positions, calculate the settled account value of all member accounts and cease all banking transactions.
Intrade added that it will “investigate these circumstances further” during the next few weeks and “determine the necessary course of action.”
“We are committed to reporting faithfully the status of things as they are clarified and hope you will bear with us as we do all we can to resume operations as promptly as possible,” the note concluded.
Founded in 1999, Intrade has been known to provide betting opportunities on just about anything, including election races and whether countries would drop the euro.
Customers were also able to bet on commodities such as oil and gold, a practice that drew the ire of U.S. regulators. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged in November that Intrade violated a ban on off-exchange options trading.